Chinese Scientists have introduced an innovative, green alternative to nylon and Kevlar
Spider silk breakthroughs have been a tech news staple since the nineties, as far as I can remember.
Never have seen a product that makes use of the special properties.
Production has been a real bottleneck. Also, I’m skeptical they got the actual strength right in this headline. It’s strong, but it’s still a biological material.
Edit: Yeah, it’s half as strong per weight as a high-strength synthetic polymer, and weaker than normal steel on a volumetric basis. It stretches really far before it snaps though, which has implications for things like energy absorption.
facepalm
Well, we have a horror movie intro right in the article.
Mi first realized that the experiment had been successful when he saw the silkworm’s eyes turning red under the microscope.
This seems like a weird alternate Spiderman origin story…
silkworm-man doesn’t have the same ring to it.
Spiderman: Shoots webs
Spidersilkman: Shoots bulletproof kimonos
Is it spider silk though? Can’t have gene edited spider silk without gene edited spiders. This is gene edited silkworm silk. Or am I missing something about silk?
Yes, it’s spider silk. These silkworms are transgenic. Their silk-producing genes have been replaced by spider silk-producing genes.
